Inherited Facts About Astounding Royal Possessions
Kingdoms are built on expansion: Monarchs gather land, people, and wealth. It should come as no surprise that in the process of accumulating all that land and wealth, they also end up with some pretty weird stuff along the way.
24. Purple Bagpipes
Oft-married English king Henry VIII was fond of fighting, flirting, and feasting, but he was also an accomplished and dedicated musician and composer with a collection of instruments that included tabards, viols, and shawms.
The most extraordinary part of his collection, however, was a set of bagpipes made of ivory and purple velvet. You have to imagine it looked–and sounded–like a cross between an elephant and a bottle of Crown Royal.
23. A Horned Helmet
If the purple bagpipes didn’t convince you of Henry VIII’s strange tastes, perhaps his helmet will. Among his armor was a helmet that was given to Henry by the Holy Roman emperor Maximilian I.
The helmet, sporting a strangely mocking face with a prominent nose, included a pair of gold spectacles and, alarmingly, a pair of massive curling horns.
22. A Board Game
Among the usual, boring old gold and jewel treasures found at King Tut’s tomb was a board game. No one has been able to find the rules for Senet, but archaeologists have found enough pieces to guess the game was popular among all classes in Egypt.
Still, it’s exciting to find one buried with a pharaoh; that’s like the president being buried with a Scrabble board.
21. A Solid Gold Nose
Byzantine tyrant Justinian II was chased from the throne in 695 AD. As a final insult, his usurpers cut off his nose before booting him but the door. Justinian the Slit-nosed, as he was now known, returned ten years later with a nose of solid gold and reclaimed his title. His second reign was short lived, however. In 711, Justinian was killed in battle…by his own troops.
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